Sea Glass Mobile Tutorial

A few weeks ago I crafted this sea glass mobile, and since instagramming a photo of it, I have had a lot of questions about how I made it. So, I thought I would make a little tutorial for you all here. And when I say "little tutorial" I mean it. It truly is so simple.

(photo from: The Rubbish Revival)

Months ago I found pictures of sea glass mobiles on etsy, but they were so expensive I decided I would just make my own. I have been collecting sea glass for years, and with a short walk down the beach I would be able to grab a piece of driftwood, making this craft f r e e. There are few things I appreciate more than pretty, free things. 

When I began making this mobile (months ago) I simply gathered all of my materials and went straight to laying out the sea glass how I planned on tying it. Looking at the etsy version, I could see the sea glass had simply been tied together, so that is what I attempted to do. First, with fishing line. It was a miserable fail. I couldn't get the line to tie easily or tight enough to hold the sea glass. Next, I used a thin piece of white thread. While it was much easier to actually tie, I still couldn't get it tight enough for the sea glass to not slip out. Then my awesome husband got the idea to saw teeny tiny notches in the glass to give the thread a place to "grip" the glass. Brilliant! It worked well. But then I could not figure out how to tie the glass so it would lay in a straight line, each piece upright. As you can see, the sea glass looked really sloppy. And, let's be honest, I did not feel like sawing two little notches in every single piece of sea glass.  I also had no idea how I would get each strand of sea glass to a specific desired length and spacing. (If someone knows how to do this, please do inform me).

Discouraged, I left the sea glass arranged on my desk for a few months while I searched for tutorials. It wasn't until coming across a tutorial for a sea glass project on which someone had used super glue to help secure their tied glass that I figured out just how I could do it. 

So here it goes, the actual tutorial: 

Materials: 

Sea glass

Driftwood

Thread or fishing line
Twine

Super glue

Scissors 

Directions: 

First, you will want to arrange your sea glass whichever way you desire. I would recommend using a large surface where you can also space the pieces precisely. 

Next, cut a piece of thread or fishing line long enough for one strand of sea glass, with extra thread for tying around the driftwood. I sampled both thread and fishing line and found the thread to be more durable, but both worked.

There won't be any tying, just a good amount of super glue. Continue by laying the thread on one column of sea glass and then carefully glue the thread to the back of the glass.

In this photo you can see how the glue look on the back side of the sea glass. 

I would recommend letting the first strand dry completely so you have at least one strand to measure the rest with. Then, glue the rest of the strands of glass, being extra precise about the spacing of each piece. You want (or at least I did) each row of glass to be as straight as possible. 

When each strand is completely dry you can begin tying them to your driftwood. In order to keep your rows straight, and your columns at the right length, you will need to be sure each strand's first piece of sea glass begins at the same space. It was a bit tricky, but manageable with some tying, untying, and re-tying.

I used a bit of twin tied to the driftwood so I could hang the mobile on the wall, but of course you can use whatever else you have handy. :)

And that's all there is to it! 

Ultimately, the craft was really easy, though a bit tedious. It just took a while to figure out how to do actually make the mobile and I can definitely see why the etsy version was so pricy! 

As a disclaimer, I am not sure how durable my version will be in the long run and I wouldn't recommend using the super glue method for any sea glass craft that would require more durability. But, my mobile simply hangs from the wall so I can't imagine what would make it fall apart. I gave test strands a good tug and they were able to withstand it, which is why I decided to go the super glue, no-tie route. 

Hopefully I was able to answer any questions you had, but let me know if you think of something else!